Archive May 2013

Mock Draft Army #2 Team

Not even June 1st and I'm already moving into Fantasy Football season. It's never too early to get a leg up on your opponents in what is the best fantasy sport around. Sure, there's baseball, but that's for marathon runners. I'm more of a sprinter. I'll take football and its 16 weeks of agonizing ecstasy.

NHL Playoff Observations -- Saturday

Isn't it interesting that the final four could be comprised of the last four Stanley Cup winners? Or four of the last five? Parity has been the catch phrase of the NHL for years, but that smells like dominance to me.

Why did it take Joel Quennville until Game 5 to get Jonathan Toews away from Henrik Zetterberg?

NHL Playoff Observations -- Weekend

Abuse of an official? I guess I went to bed too early. You're a bad, bad boy, Jonathan Quick. I wonder if they have the onions to lay down some supplemental discipline under Rule 39.5. It's a possibility when a game misconduct is called for abuse of an official.

Uh-oh. Henrik Lundqvist has an injured shoulder and is undergoing evaluation Sunday night. The Rangers can kiss that series goodbye without the King.

Building the Perfect Beast

Like everyone else, I'm looking for that edge in my leagues to skew the odds in my favor. Many fantasy players traditionally load up on the stud hitters and stream pitchers at the end of their staff to pick up those counting stats without killing the ratios. I'm one of those people, however, my pitching stream has been as weak as a 70 year old with a bad prostate.

NHL Playoff Observations -- Round Two Tuesday

Team captains do not act like children. They do not blame others. They stand up and accept responsibility. Alexander Ovechkin has been looking in that fun house mirror again. Have I ever mentioned how I much I can't stand people like that?

Special teams -- will they be the story of the second round? They sure were in Pittsburgh on Tuesday night.

NHL Playoff Observations -- Monday

Chris Hadfield returned to Earth at 10:31 p.m. Eastern time a sad man -- Canada's space station commander is a HUGE Leafs' fan. No wonder he had a hard time getting out of the space capsule. He had to dry his tears first.

Andrew Ference arrived at the arena in a walking boot. Wade Redden was a late scratch. And the Bruins lost Dennis Seidenberg after two shifts. They may have gotten out of the first round, but they won't get far with a back-end held together with chewing gum and bailing wire.

NHL Playoff Observations -- Sunday

Optimus Reim. Reim Minister. I don't care if the nicknames are any good; I just know the goalie is. James Reimer has proved his detractors wrong and even Roberto Luongo has become a fan. Bobby Lou's tweet after the game? #REIM4SOCHI. Now that's funny.

Ho hum, Henrik Lundqvist was the difference for the Rangers. Again. The guy was his typical brilliant self. But why isn't anyone talking about Braden Holtby who has allowed one fewer goal in the same six games? Just wondering ...

NHL Playoff Observations -- Saturday

What's the over-under on the number of questions Erik Karlsson will get about "the Matt Cooke incident." You know, team owner Eugene Melnyk still believes it was deliberate and says he is getting forensic evidence to prove it. Quick, take away his tin foil.

Man, the Isles looked good early -- they should have been up by at least two. But they just couldn't sustain it. Dang.

15 Reasons Why You Never Draft Pitching Early

Revisionist history is fun, right? Hind sight is always 20-20. But this theory is neither revisionist nor hind sight. Not drafting pitchers early in fantasy baseball drafts is not new. The following is a fifteen-pitcher starting pitching staff (fourteen of them not named Matt Harvey) with an ADP of 200 or higher (as of 4/4/13) on Mock Draft Central. It will make you feel kind of silly for drafting David Price, Cole Hamels, Gio Gonzalez, or others of their ilk.

NHL Playoff Observations -- Saturday

Strong skating is one of Drew Doughty's calling cards. Yet David Backes blew Doughty away on a breakaway in the first period. And by several steps. Doughty's overall game has been in slow, steady decline since his sophomore season. Is he suffering from Dion Phaneuf-itis?

Don Cherry was at it again: "He's a lazy hockey player."He is Evgeni Malkin. Now if only he was Canadian ....

NHL Playoff Observations -- Friday

Pass the WD-40 - Sidney Crosby says he felt rusty. He only scored two goals on eight shots and won 53.8 percent of his face-offs. I can't wait to see what the penetrating oil knocks loose next game.

Patrick Kane's stickhandling ability is absolutely sick. He made that fourth goal happen and in a phone booth, to boot. For that, I'll forgive him for the mullet with the racing stripes. But just this time.

NHL Playoff Observations -- Thursday

Did you know New York State has a unemployment benefits calculator on its Department of Labor website? Larry Brooks will likely be the first to pass that info along to John Tortorella in a week or so ...

NHL Playoff Observations -- Wednesday

The best trade that was never made. Yup. Roberto Luongo. Otherwise, Joe Cannata (yah, I don't know either) would have been in the blue paint tonight. Bobby Lou has something to prove and he'll carry this series. He'll also take the end of his composite and stick it up Alain Vignault's ...

OK, so the green men are one thing, but let's kill the knock-offs. The guys in Pittsburgh are frightening. Black tights with bright yellow suspenders that hold up bright yellow tutus? Men in bike shorts are bad enough ...

Billy Hamilton went for $28 in the NL LABR auction this past weekend. I discussed this with a fellow writer who participates in Tout Wars with me later this month and we discussed the problem with investing heavily into Hamilton.